The Abrams Clean Tech Report

 

A Conversation with Melinda Richter, Founder & CEO of Prescience International – And A Heads Up To All: The San Jose BioCenter Has Flexible Space For Lease

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, I know…truth is, Jon and I have been busy incubating a new little ‘project’ here at home – and it’s been taking quite a bit of the energy that I normally devoted to things like blogging. I’ll continue to blog, but it will be with less frequency; as always, I’ll blog as time permits, but with everything that’s been going on on this end, it’s likely I won’t be able to blog quite as much as I’d like.

Nevertheless, one blog I did want to get out the door before the end of this year is one highlighting Prescience International. Net-net – if you have a cleantech or bio startup but don’t know about Prescience – you should, so please read on. And now that the noise around Cop15 has died down a bit, and I’m not also caught up in reading about what’s going on with the healthcare debate, I can get back to focusing on this stuff.

In writing this, my main goal was to answer some questions for those entrepreneurs who want to learn more about Prescience International, and how each organization under the Prescience umbrella is structured, and probably most importantly – I wanted to lay out what you need to know to be considered for one of Prescience’s programs. Prescience offers one of the most unique ‘launch pads’ for cleantech and bio start ups in Silicon Valley, so additionally, I’ve cited some of the organization’s programs and upcoming activities, for those of you wanting to add them to your calendar. And for those of you seeking information about applying to the organization’s “Meet With” Series – see the end of my blog for more information. So…hopefully all this is helpful information. And in the meantime – I wish everyone a wonderful, happy holiday season, and hope all are good, and ready to meet 2010 head-on with their sleeves rolled up, a smile, hope, faith and optimism for the future ~
—

About Prescience International
Melinda Richter is a friend I have great admiration for, though unfortunately, as busy as we both are with our respective lives, I don’t get to see her too often. Fortunately, we have the kind of friendship where I pretty much know I can pick up the phone and start where we left off last since we first met. We had an opportunity to work together several years ago back when Astia.org was the Women’s Technology Cluster, when I was doing some business development for Springboard Enterprises, and Melinda worked for the WTC. We became friends during the moments we both had free back then. So it’s with great satisfaction that I see Melinda doing what she’s doing now, because I can tell you that whatever Melinda touches, I don’t even have to ask to know it’ll be done with great success and done for a worthwhile cause. She’s exceptionally talented, extremely well connected, committed, a really interesting person with a tremendous amount of depth, and most importantly – she’s a good person with a great heart, and she’s doing something extremely worthwhile with her time: she’s working her butt off to help develop noteworthy cleantech and bio companies.

Today, Melinda heads up Prescience International, an organization whose model she explains to me by referring back to her days at Nortel, when she had the assets and resources of a large corporation backing what were essentially ‘start up’ initiatives inside Nortel, and pointing also to her experiences working with the then Women’s Technology Cluster (http://www.Astia.org): of Prescience, she says “Prescience aims to mimic that “big company” environment for entrepreneurs – for whom it’s so difficult to get started, get attention. “I look at is as if I were an entrepreneur who’d started my business/project within Nortel,” she continues, “with the same sort of assets and resources at my disposal that a project team with Nortel, or Applied Materials would have – where all I’d have to focus on is my R&D.”

“That, in a nutshell, is, for example, the concept behind the San Jose BioCenter, (one of several Prescience organizations), which offers specialized facilities, capital equipment and both lab and business operation support. We also form relationships with a host of people in the industry to assist our companies and with key business development people within big corporations. Our goal is to accelerate the commercialization of science and technology for the purpose of enlarging the cleantech and bio opportunities.”

How to get your company involved in Prescience’s programs?
Well, if you’re an entrepreneur, here’s what you need to know before going in and applying…and this is straight from Melinda, so it’s worth listening to:

First, your technology has to fit a problem. It has to be a very clear problem that you’re solving and a very clear market that you’re going after. And you have to think about all the things that a VC will look at – what’s the problem, what’s the solution, how’s that compare to the competition, how are you going to protect your value prop; how do you intend to enter the market, and most importantly, the team — you may be so new, or the category may be so new you don’t have a lot – but you have to know the value prop. You have to make sure you’re solving the problem first.

In terms of differences to note between Prescience’s various programs, the Environmental Business Cluster and The San Jose BioCenter have two different levels of markers. If you want to be a resident client of the San Jose BioCenter you have to have some level of funding – someone has to have said yes your technology is credible, and here’s money — either in the form of grants, angel, vc, or you’re an entrepreneur who’s done it before. And you need to have some level of funding because it’s an expensive operation, and you need to show you can pay a lease. However, there is an option for those without funding: you can become a part of the programs and access the general equipment space as an affiliate. So you can be a member without having an on-site lease; and for that you have to demonstrate that you’re solving a problem with a really good technology -meaning you have to have a base of technologists who are solving a very real problem. To be a BioCenter Affiliate, it will cost you between $500-$1500; the entry point for a fully equipped wet lab is $3k– note: just to give you some perspective, this gives you access to $10 million dollars worth of equipment. So that’s the scoop with the SJ BioCenter.

The Environmental Business Cluster (EBC) takes in earlier stage companies than the BioCenter. It’s very focused on clean tech – so clean tech ventures are the focus of the organization, which takes ideas coming from what most would say are very good sources – either national energy labs, or the California Energy Commission. “Usually, there are a number of companies already coming to us from solid sources of referral,” says Melinda, “However, we’re getting a whole host of other companies applying now with excellent technology, solving real problems in the markets that regulators are interested in, and those are companies we’re really interested in.” Melinda was also quick to note that for the EBC, such companies don’t necessarily have to have funding yet – a company does need, however, to be able to refine their business plans and also be able to demonstrate how they’re solving real problems with a great technology solution.

As an example of how Prescience’s model works opportunistically for its participating client companies: one of the most interesting opportunities created by Prescience for companies participating in its various programs is a unique “Meet With” Series where, as Melinda tells it, “we’ll have PGE come in for a day and have our emerging technology groups meet with PGE; or we’ll have Alloy Ventures come in, and provide half hour coaching sessions to our companies. We’ve had Khosla Ventures coming in, and a full day with CPUC coming up…and we’ll give general coaching, then put our companies in front of all the players that are the key decision makers to make things happen for them.”

Then there’s the Clean Tech Institute, a fairly new program that Prescience co-founded. Held at UC Berkeley, the Institute is a forum hosted and run in partnership with UC Berkeley’s Center for Executive Education. Prescience partnered with the University to help design the program and ensure that executives coming out of it are going to have a real industry impact when they leave. “What we’re trying to do is change the industry,” says Melinda, “by bringing together the innovators, policy makers and financiers of industry – and we’ll have people come in and speak, but the goal is really to have our participants and industry leaders engage in dialogue about how to create change. They’re a key part of the feedback loop in the industry, these participants – on the policy side, the financial side, and the technology side. So we hope people will be able to leave this 2 day forum within policy, tech or venture capital and make very real things happen.” The Clean Tech Institute is a held in February, June and October– and you have an opportunity to enter into this whenever you want – so you can enter into the dialogue at any point in time. Thus far, participants have been entrepreneurs, government, and the vc community – with a requirement being that there has to be an equal percentage of government representatives, financial industry types and technologists in the room.

The Clean Tech Institute’s format is similar to that of Prescience’s BioExec Institute – just tackling a different industry. Once a year, the program is run over 6 days, and it’s all done in a quarter, while the Clean Tech Institute is held 2 days every few months.

Where does Prescience get its support from?
Clients, sponsors, mentors, partners — organizations like the Redevelopment Agency of City of San Jose – which ponied up an initial investment of $6 million for the BioCenter. Says Melinda, when I ask her how Prescience works with the Redevelopment Agency, “Well, for instance, one of our companies needs to get UL lab certification, and the Agency is helping this company get into the lab to get the UL certification. I appreciate our relationship with them enormously; they believe in what we’re doing, and follow it up with action.”

What’s next on Prescience’s to-do list?
For those of you wondering, the Environmental Business Cluster is expanding – and has moved into a new building in downtown San Jose. Melinda says the team is also looking for a building to replicate the model of the BioCenter for the EBC, so they’re currently in process with a bunch of land owners and building owners to pick the best building for the EBC. It’s expected that what will result will be an incredible clean tech innovation center. I know PGE and the CEC are already committed to partnering with Prescience on the new EBC.

So there you go – Prescience in a nutshell. It’s a quick and dirty blog, I realize, but it’s an important one. It’s organizations like Prescience that exist to inspire and support entrepreneurs like you. Prescience is a part of what makes Silicon Valley so unique. And it’s people like Melinda and her team that do the dirty work behind the scenes, in the trenches with the entrepreneurs. So here’s to Melinda and her team, and to all you entrepreneurs building cleantech and bio companies and those supporting you….may you be inspired in this season and into the next, and the next and the next….

Happy holidays!

——–

Upcoming Prescience International Events To Note:

http://www.environmentalcluster.org/events.html

Meet with… RockPort Capital Partners
January 29, 2010 | 8:30am-1:00pm | @ Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St, Mountain View, CA
The Meet with Series is a partnering and coaching series for entrepreneurs. The goal of the program is to facilitate meetings between cleantech entrepreneurs and investors, customers and potential partners.

Industry Panel Series: Public Finance
February 18, 2010 | 3:30pm-7:00pm | @ Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St, Mountain View, CA

Meet with… Mohr Davidow Ventures
March 11, 2010 | 8:30am-4:00pm | @ Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St, Mountain View, CA
The Meet with Series is a partnering and coaching series for entrepreneurs. The goal of the program is to facilitate meetings between cleantech entrepreneurs and investors, customers and potential partners.

Biz Dev Series: Public Finance
March 16, 2010

Comp & Benefits Series
March 24, 2010

Legal Series
March 30, 2010 | @ Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St, Mountain View, CA

M&A Activity in Cleantech – Planning a Good Deal, Planning Your Exit
April 8, 2010 | 3:30pm-7:00pm | @ Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St, Mountain View, CA
Is there a strong M&A market for Cleantech? What needs to be considered for a cleantech M&A that is different than in other industries? What are the typical deal structures? Most importantly, how can you position your company to make acquisition an attractive option?

Biz Dev Series: Grant Writing
April 20, 2010

Meet with… Bosch
April 30, 2010 | 8:30am-4:00pm | @ Fenwick & West LLP 801 California St, Mountain View, CA
The Meet with Series is a partnering and coaching series for entrepreneurs. The goal of the program is to facilitate meetings between cleantech entrepreneurs and investors, customers and potential partners.

BioCenter Upcoming Events To Note:

http://www.sjbiocenter.com/events.html

Grant Writing – January 21, 2010 – a BioCenter Business Development workshop – San Jose, California
Selecting Your Contract Research Providers – February 2, 2010 – a BioCenter All About Science event – San Jose, California
Effective outsourcing: Navigating Hurdles and Avoiding Pitfalls in Virtual Drug Development – February 11, 2010 – a BioCenter All About Science event – San Jose, California
409A and Issues Around Valuation of Company Common Stock – February 17, 2010 – a BioCenter Comp & Benefits workshop – Menlo Park, California
The Ten Mistakes That Senior Management Teams Make with Investigational New Drug Applications (INDs) – March 2, 2010 – a BioCenter All About Science event – San Jose, California
How to Become a VC Magnet – March 18, 2010 – a BioCenter Industry Panel event – Menlo Park, California
Meet with… Amgen – April 22, 2010 – a BioCenter Meet with… event – San Jose, California
Meet with… Gilead – June 23, 2010 – a BioCenter Meet with… event – San Jose, California

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